Retractable stove hood



Dec. 5, 1967 D. c. SIMPSON ETAL 3,356,008

RETRACTABLE STOVE HOOD Filed Nov. 27, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 l i k Dec. 5, 1967 D. c. SIMPSON ETAL. 3,356,008

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AWWYS Dec. 5, 1967 D. c. SIMPSON ETAL RETRACTABLE STOVE HOOD Filed Nov. 27, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 x l \TOIS 00mm C. Smpsoy 5W P904. 84440715 %4%%%42 fiw ffiw A was United States Patent 3,356,008 RETRACTABLE STOVE HOOD Donald C. Simpson, Drums, and Paul Ballots, Hazleton, Pa., assignors to Nautilus Industries, Inc., Freeland, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Nov. 27, 1964, Ser. No. 414,061 8 Claims. (Cl. 98-115) This invention relates to domestic stove hoods and, more particularly, to ducted or no-duct hoods adapted to draw smoke and fumes from cooking areas through grease or charcoal filters, or both, and to discharge the filtered air outside of the building or to return it to an area such as the kitchen within the building.

Heretofore, hoods of the class described have been mounted primarily over surface ranges to draw the smoke and fumes from the cooking vessels thereon and, in the case of no-duct hoods, through grease and charcoal filters to degrease and deodorize the air, and then return it to the kitchen; or, in the case of ducted hoods, the air has been drawn from the cooking vessels through grease filters and discharged from the building through appropriate ducts. No serious effort was made to treat the exhaust from domestic ovens other than ovens separately installed in cabinets, because the construction and location of such ovens in relation to the surface range made it difficult to draw the oven exhaust into the hood so that this eX-.

haust was usually simply discharged with its grease and odors into the kitchen.

However, recent new developments in cooking unit design have led to eye-level ovens positioned above the surface range, which range is sometimes arranged to slide horizontally outwardly from closed or inactive position of non-use or when only the front burners are in use, to an extended position for the use of the back burners as well. With the ovens located above the surface burners, hoods of the class described may conveniently be positioned above the ovens thus making it possible also to treat the oven exhaust which leaves the cooking unit through a small opening often about 12 to 15 square inches in area at the top of the unit.

But this prospect presents a number of serious problems, particularly in connection with gas fired cooking units. Thus, since a gas oven exhaust is usually much hotter than air entering a hood from surface burners, sometimes reaching temperatures of the order of 950 F., a fire hazard is presented in respect of grease which may have attached itself previously to the grease filter; and in the case of no-duct hoods in which acivated charcoal filters are utilized to adsorb the odors and smoke from the air passing through the hoods, the effectiveness of the charcoal filters is quite likely to be destroyed since at about 400 F. the odors and smoke adsorbed by charcoal of the type used in such filters are released and would be returned to the kitchen. Additionally, the fire hazard is compounded since the ignition temperature of the charcoal is about 660 F.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that for reasons of appearance and compactness, it is desirable for the hood in its normal position to be flush or slightly set back in respect of the front surface of the oven; but for effectiveness, it is important for the hood to be extensible outwardly to overlie the surface burners when they are in use. In this connection, the maximum extension of hoods known to us has been limited by the fact that the space available for the extensible part of the hood, is limited by the need to allow room in the unit for necessary blowers and their driving motor. This limitation has effectively limited the size of the extensible part and thus the maximum extension of that part out over the surface burners.

Hoods of the class described that are known to us embody an added disadvantage in that they are constructed with the return air passageway built. up over the intake passageway. This construction necessarily limits the minimum height of the overall unit; and since such units are usually positioned below kitchen cabinets, the overall dimensions of the hoods are of significant importance.

We have conceived by our invention a hood of the class described by which we are able to overcome the foregoing difliculties and disadvantages. Thus, we contribute a hood which can treat safely the oven exhaust without danger of fire and without destroying the effectiveness of charcoal filters. Additionally, hoods made according to our concept are able to overlie the surface burners when they are extended, and yet are compact relatively to the oven fascia when in normal or retracted position.

In essence, our invention contemplates the provision of a hood of the class described comprising an inlet, an outlet, blower means adapted to draw air in through the inlet and to discharge such air from the outlet, means adjacent the inlet for removably securing filter means thereacross and heat diffuser means positioned adjacent said inlet and upstream of said filter securing means.

A feature of our invention resides in the fact that the heat diffuser means is so constructed that the hot oven gases are cooled to acceptable levels prior to entering the filters.

According to another feature of the invention, we construct the extensible part of the hood so that its overall length, and thus its maximum extension, is greater in relation to the hood size than has heretofore been possible. Essentially, this is achieved by arranging the extensible or sliding part of the hood so that a portion of it deflects as it moves inwardly towards closed or inactive position so that the blowers and motor are nested in the deflected portion thereof allowing the remaining portions to pass at least a part of the blower and motor unit thus permitting an extensible part of greater overall length. Actually, the blower and motor unit" are usually positioned in the rear center of the stationary housing, wherefore we arrange the rear center part of the sliding part to deflect and allow the lateral rear parts thereof to embrace the blower-motor unit. This enables us to use a longer sliding part and this part can in turn slide out further over the surface burners than otherwise.

Another feature of our invention resides in the constructions of the sliding part whereby we provide intake and return conduits or passageways all within the overall configuration of the sliding part and without increasing any of its exterior dimensions. This feature is achieved by reducing the vertical dimension of a portion of the sliding part for telescoping cooperation with a return passage in the stationary housing that fits within the reduced portion of the sliding part.

There has thus been outlined rather broadly the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject of the claims appended hereto. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures for carrying out the several purposes of the invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including suchequivalent construction as do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.

A specificembodime'nt of the invention has been chosen for purposes of illustration and description, and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a cooking unit having an eye-level oven and illustrating a hood and surface burners in extended position;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the hood taken along the lines of 22 of FIG. 1 but with the hood only partially extended;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but showing the hood in inactive or closed position;

FIG. 4 is similar to FIGS. 2 and 3 but illustrates the hood in fully extended position;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the heat diffuser means in exploded relation to a grease filter;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the heat diffuser of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 7-7 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a partial perspective view of the rear of the sliding or extensible part of the hood illustrating the deflecting member; and

FIG. 9 is a top view of the hood in horizontal section positioned over a cooking unit and in retracted position.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, and more particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown a cooking unit 10 of the type having several surface burners 11 which are shown mounted in a slide 12 for horizontal sliding movement. The cooking unit also includes an eye-level oven 14 and an oven control panel 15.

The hood of the present invention is designated generally by the reference number 16 and is shown positioned above the oven 14 and as comprising a housing 17 and an extensible part or slide 19 including a front panel 20 and handle 21.

Turning now to FIGS. 2 and 4, it will be seen that the slide 19 is movable telescopically relatively to the housing 17 from closed or inactive position (FIG. 3) to fully extended position (FIG. 4). The housing 17 has a bottom wall 22, top wall 24, rear wall 25, side walls 26 (FIG. 2), a partial front wall 27, about which more will be said later, and an interior central air duct 28 extending rearwardly from the front wall 27 and having a lower wall 28a.

A blower-motor unit 29 (FIGS. 2 and 3) is positioned at the rear of the housing 17 and embodies a known construction of motor and squirrel cage or centrifugal blowers connected to each end of the motor shaft together with a scroll housing for controlling the air flow effected by the unit. In FIGS. 2 and 3 the scroll is arranged to permit air to be drawn to the left as viewed and into the blowers at the back thereof, and then outwardly centrally of the unit and through the duct 28 towards the front of the hood as shown by the arrows in FIG. 2. The partial front wall 27 of the housing 17 is provided with a louver to direct the air from the duct 28 in an upwardly direction into the kitchen.

Referring now to FIGS. 8 and 9, it will be seen that the slide member 19 includes the front panel 20, side walls 31 and a top wall 34 that is formed of similar horizontal sections 34a extending along lengthwise of the slide member and contiguous with the upper edges of the side walls 31. The sections 34a merge with converging sections 3412 which in turn merge with a further horizontal top wall section 34c extending across between the lower portions of the converging sections 34a to constitute a section parallel to sections 3411 but offset downwardly therefrom thus giving the top wall of the slide a depressed central portion. This wall section 340 terminates short of the inner ends of the walls 31 and wall sections 34a, 34b; but is effectively extended to a point in the plane of the inner ends of the walls 31 and sections 34a and 34b by a flap 36 pivoted to the end thereof and biased towards horizontal position, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 8, by a deflector 37 extending rearwardly to overlie the flap 36. The horizontal section 340 has two flanges 34d to effect a positive seal therewith when the flap is in its raised position as shown in FIG. 8, for example.

The slide member side walls 31 have channel extensions 31a at the lower corners thereof which mount wheels 31b for movement in suitable tracks 310 (only one of which is shown in FIG. 2) in the housing 17 for smooth frictionless movement between open and closed position.

A Z-shaped member 33 (FIGS. 24) extends across the rear of the slide but has its upper leg spaced below the wall 34c to permit the flow of air therebetween. The lower leg of this partition is slightly sloped sealingly to engage a flange 22a across the front of the lower wall 22 of the housing. The member 33 has a central T-shaped guide member 33a extending rearwardly thereof, the vertical web of which rides in a U-shaped track (not shown) supported on the bottom wall 22 of the housing 17 for stablity of movement. As best shown in FIGS. 2 and 8, a latch plate 33b overlies the forward position of the guide member 33a and has latches 33c depending from its rear edge on each side of the member 33a. This latch plate is hinged at 3301 and is urged into horizontal position atop the :member 33a by means of a light torsion spring 33:2. The latches 33c engage the rear edge of the flange 22a when the slide is pulled out in order to limit its movement. When it is desired to remove the slide altogether, it is merely necessary to lift the latch plate against the force of the spring 332, and for this purpose a hole 33f (FIG. 8) is provided in the horizontal web of the member 33a and passes through the lower leg of the member 33 as well. The hole is so positioned that when the slide is fully extended, the latch plate 33b may be raised by pushing any convenient tool, or ones finger, up through the hole to disengage the latches from the flange 22a. The slide may then be completely removed for cleaning and the like.

The slide also supports a heat diffuser 39, the details of which will later be described. For the present it is sufficient to know that the diffuser 39 is generally rectangular in plan and is positioned just behind the front panel 20 and extends horizontally between the side walls 31 to the inner surfaces of which it may be removably supported in any convenient way as by support flanges that may be provided to engage cooperating parts of the side walls 31. Since, as has already been stated, the diffuser is located upstream of the grease and charcoal filters, we have found it convenient to mount the grease filter 40 in the upper part of the diffuser itself simply by providing angles 43 in the diffuser to serve as supports therefor. The charcoal filter 41 is supported on flanges formed by angles 42 conveniently mounted in the slide 34 to dispose the charcoal filter 41 directly above and downstream of the grease filter 40. Actually, the grease filters comprise spaced parallel mesh members with spun metal sandwiched therebetween, while the charcoal filters comprise spaced mesh members with granules of activated charcoal therebetween, such filters and their general construction being known in the art.

The heat diffuser 39 is best illustrated in FIGS. 5 to 7 and comprises a frame formed of a horizontal plate 44, a vertical rear wall 45 and end wall 46. The front wall 47 is inclined forwardly and upwardly as best shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, and is formed along with end wall 46 with adjacent elongated slots 49 for a purpose to be described. The wall of the diffuser opposite the side wall 46 is mostly cut away, and as Viewed in FIGS. 5 and 6, the left side of the plate 44 is foreshortened relatively to the front and rear walls 47 and 45, respectively, to provide a recess 48. A diffuser plate 50 is parallel to the plate 44 and is slightly spaced thereabove by means of a plurality of short spacer pins 51 and overlies the recess 48 in plate 44. The front edge 52 of the diffuser plate 50 is parallel to the front edge of the plate 44 for a short length left to right (FIG. 5) to a point slightly to the right of the recess 48, then tapers rearwardly for the remainder of 7 its length and merges with the end edge 54.

By way of example, a heat diffuser 39 having a length of 28 inches and a width of 9 inches, may be equipped with a plate 50 that is 16 inches long, 7 inches wide at its wide end, 4 inches wide at its end 54, with a front edge 52 measuring 6 inches from the widest side edge to the point 52a at which the tapered edge begins.

Tests have shown that a diffuser as described herein is effective in lowering the oven exhaust temperature to acceptable levels even where double ovens, i.e. oven and broiler combinations, are used simultaneously.

In operation, if only the oven is used, the slide 19 is drawn outwardly to the extent shown in FIG. 2 so that the recess 48 in plate 44 overlies the oven exhaust 13 which usually is an opening of an area of about 12 to 15 square inches adjacent the left front corner of the oven top wall. Theblower-motor unit 29 is activated and the oven exhaust is drawn into the recess 48 only to be deflected by the plate 50. As these exhaust gases roll upwardly over the edges 52 and 54 of plate 50, they are mixed with cool air which is drawn in through slots 49 and the unwalled end of the diffuser member 39 and are cooled to acceptable levels.

These gases then pass through the grease filter 40 upon which the grease condenses, and the charcoal filter 41 which adsorbs the smoke, irritants and odours. The filtered exhaust then is drawn rearwardly to the blowers which direct it back through the upper central housing duct 28 to the louvers 30.

When the surface burners are being used alone or along with the oven, the slide 19 is fully extended as in FIG. 4 preferably so that it extends at least to a plane passing centrally through the front surface burners in their extended position. In this way, the gases from the oven exhaust as well as from the cooking vessels on the surface burners are drawn through the hood, filtered and returned.

When it is no longer desired to use the hood, the slide 19 is pushed to inactive or closed position. As the flap 36 reaches the lower edge of the partial front wall 27 of the housing, the deflector 37 serves as a cam and pivots the flap 36 downwardly (FIG. 2). As the slide moves further towards inactive position, the rear edge of the flap engages the housing of the motor-blower unit 29 and is further pivoted downwardly (FIG. 3) thus to allow the side portions of the slide to pass beyond the forward edge of the motor-blower unit.

It will be appreciated by those persons skilled in the art that the hood shown and described herein may readily be converted to a duct type hood, i.e. one in which the exhaust is discharged externally of the building, merely by removing the charcoal filter which is not needed, remounting the blower-motor unit to discharge upwardly or rearwardly, and replace the discharge grille 30 with a blank panel. The housing is equipped with top and rear knockout plates (not shown) to permit communication with top or rear connecting exhaust ducts, as desired.

To permit some preliminary cooling and free flow of ambient air into the hood, particularly when only partially open, as in FIG. 2, a spacer 55 of the order of one inch in height may be placed between the oven top and the hood.

While the diffuser described herein utilizes an inlet recess at the left hand side thereof, as viewed in FIGS. 5 and 6 for example, the recess being adapted for positioning directly above the oven exhaust of cooking units of certain manufacturers, other manufacturers position the oven exhaust centrally of the horizontal top surface of the unit. In the latter case, it has been found that diffusers of the type described, i.e. with the entrance 48 positioned as shown, are quite satisfactory for treating the oven exhaust. It will be understood of course that where the oven exhaust is positioned on the right hand side of the oven as viewed in FIG. 1, the diffuser will be constructed with the inlet recess 48 on the right hand side and with all other parts and configurations appropriately reversed.

We believe that the construction. of our novel stove hood will now be understood and that our invention will be fully appreciated by those persons skilled in the art.

We now claim:

1. A stove hood of the class described comprising, a housing, an outlet in said housing, a slide member movable telescopically relatively to said housing and having an inlet, said slide having an inlet duct communicating with said inlet, a discharge duct in said housing, communicating with said outlet, a wall of each of said ducts being contoured for nesting relation, blower means in said housing drawing air into said inlet and inlet duct and discharging same through said outlet duct and outlet, said wall of said inlet duct being recessed at its inner end to receive said blower means when said slide member is fully telescoped relatively to said housing, a gate pivoted to said inlet duct wall, means biasing said gate to position effectively to extend said wall into said recess, and means pivoting said gate in a direction out of said recess upon movement of said slide member to telescoping position relatively to said housing.

2. A stove hood of the class described comprising, a housing, an outlet in said housing, a slide member movable telescopically relatively to said housing and having an inlet, said slide having an inlet duct communicating with said inlet, a discharge duct in said housing communicating with said outlet, an upper wall of said inlet duct and a lower wall of said outlet duct being contoured for nesting relation, blower means in said housing drawing air into said inlet and inlet duct and discharging same through said outlet duct and outlet, said wall of said inlet duct being recessed at its inner end to receive said blower means when said slide member is fully telescoped relatively to said housing, a gate pivoted to said inlet duct wall, means biasing said gate to position effectively to extend said wall into said recess, said wall of said outlet duct serving to pivot said gate in a direction out of said recess upon movement of said slide member to telescoping position relatively to said housing.

3. A stove hood of the class described comprising a housing having an open front and interior wall means dividing the interior of said housing into inlet and discharge ducts extending to said open front, a slide member movable telescopically relative to said. housing in and out from its said open front, said slide member having a front panel which covers said open front when said slide member is in its innermost position, said slide member further including wall means arranged to move adjacent said interior walls, means to provide extensions of said inlet and discharge ducts when said slide member is moved outwardly, said extensions being opened at their bottom and top respectively to admit air in through said bottom to said inlet duct and out through said top from said discharge duct, and means within said housing for drawing air in through said inlet duct and discharging air out through said outlet duct.

4. A stove hood according to claim 3, further charac terized by the provision of means adjacent said inlet fo mounting filter means in the path of air drawn into said inlet duct.

5. A stove hood as in claim 3 wherein said slide member wall means extends horizontally near the outer upper edges of said slide member and is depressed toward the center of said slide member, the depressed portion of said wall means defining said inlet duct extension.

6. A stove hood as in claim 3 including latch means limiting movement of said slide member relative to said housing in an extending direction, and means for rendering said latch means ineffective whereby said slide member is removable from aid housing.

7. A heat diffuser adapted to be mounted adjacent the inlet of a stove hood comprising a housing having a bottom wall and a front wall extending up from said bottom wall, means for mounting a filter to extend generally parallel to said bottom wall at a fixed distance thereabove,

said bottom wall being formed with the bottom hot gas inlet opening for receiving hot gases from a cooking unit, said front Wall being formed with a plurality of ambient air inlet openings for admitting relatively cool room air, and a baffle plate mounted within said housing parallel to and between said bottom wall and said filter mounting means, the front edge of said baffle plate being displaced from said front wall to direct incoming hot gases toward said ambient air inlet opening and around the front edge of said plate to become diffused and diluted thereby and directed in such condition over the surface of such filter.

8. A heat diffuser adapted to be mounted adjacent the inlet of a stove hood comprising a housing having a bottom wall and a front Wall extending up from said bottom wall, means for mounting a filter to extend generally parallel to said bottom Wall at a fixed distance thereabove, said bottom wall being formed with the bottom hot gas inlet opening for receiving hot gases from a cooking unit, said front Wall being formed with a plurality of ambient aid inlet openings for admitting relatively cool 2 room air, and a baflie plate mounted within said housing parallel to and between said bottom Wall and said filter mounting means, the front edge of said baffle plate being displaced from said front wall and tapering rearwardly from a location beyond said bottom hot gas inlet opening to direct incoming 'hot gases toward said ambient air inlet openings and around the front edge of said plate to become difiused and diluted thereby and directed in such condition over the surface of such filter.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS V Canavan 98-115 ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner.

M. A. ANTONAKAS, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A STOVE HOOD OF THE CLASS DESCRIBED COMPRISING, A HOUSING, AN OUTLET IN SAID HOUSING, A SLIDE MEMBER MOVABLE TELESCOPICALLY RELATIVELY TO SAID HOUSING AND HAVING AN INLET, SAID SLIDE HAVING AN INLET DUCT COMMUNICATING WITH SAID INLET, A DISCHARGE DUCT IN SAID HOUSING, COMMUNICATING WITH SAID OUTLET, A WALL OF EACH OF SAID DUCTS BEING CONTOURED FOR NESTING RELATION, BLOWER MEANS IN SAID HOUSING DRAWING AIR INTO SAID INLET AND INLET DUCT AND DISCHARGING SAME THROUGH SAID OUTLET DUCT AND OUTLET, SAID WALL OF SAID INLET DUCT BEING RECESSED AT ITS INNER END TO RECEIVE SAID BLOWER MEANS WHEN SAID SLIDE MEMBER IS FULLY TELESCOPED RELATIVELY TO SAID HOUSING, A GATE PIVOTED TO SAID INLET DUCT WALL, MEANS BIASING SAID GATE TO POSITION EFFECTIVELY TO EXTEND SAID WALL INTO SAID RECESS, AND MEANS PIVOTING SAID GATE IN A DIRECTION OUT OF SAID RECESS UPON MOVEMENT OF SAID SLIDE MEMBER TO TELESCOPING POSITION RELATIVELY TO SAID HOUSING. 